CHENNAI/BENGALURU: India’s IT hub, Bengaluru, has been ranked the second most congested city globally in 2025, with an average congestion level of 74.4 per cent, according to data released by Netherlands-based location technology firm TomTom. Chennai came 32nd in the list.
TomTom’s 2025 Traffic Index placed Mexico City at the top, followed by Bengaluru and Dublin, the report said.
The index evaluates cities worldwide based on average travel times and congestion levels, providing high-quality, publicly accessible data.
The average congestion level in Chennai was 58.6 per cent, similar to 2024, the report said. A vehicle can cover an average distance of 4.8 km in 15 minutes, which is 0.2 km less than last year, while it takes 31 minutes and 15 seconds for a 10-km drive. The average speed during rush hour is only 16 km per hour.
In Chennai, the worst day to travel in 2025 was October 17, the Friday before Deepavali weekend, when the city experienced a 95 per cent congestion level on average - and a suffocating 154 per cent at 6 pm. On that day, motorists were able to cover only 2.8 km in 15 minutes at 6 pm, which works out to only 11.2 kmph.
The average congestion level in Chennai during morning rush hour was 69.4 per cent, when it took 33 minutes and 54 seconds to travel 10 km. That is, the average speed was 17.7 km per hour.
The evening rush hour was worse, as the average congestion level shot up to 100.9 per cent and the travel time rose to 41 minutes and 6 seconds to cover the same 10-km distance. The average speed fell to 14.6 km per hour, the report said.
In 2025, 132 hours (or 5 days and 12 hours) were lost to traffic congestion during rush hour, which is 3 hours and 50 minutes more than last year.
Besides Bengaluru and Chennai, eight other Indian cities are featured among the top 100 globally. TomTom noted that the congestion levels, travel times, and speeds are based on anonymised trip data spanning more than 3.65 trillion km worldwide.
The data was collected over the year from drivers in large metropolitan and central city areas, covering the entire road network, including major highways.